1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a method for producing olefins and halogenated olefins, and more specifically, this invention relates to a method for using diamonds and carbon composite materials containing diamonds to catalyze elimination reactions of halogenated compounds to produce olefins and halogenated olefins.
2. Background of the Invention
Dehalogenation reactions and hydrodehalogenation reactions are combined to produce polyvinyl chloride. Current production capacity for polyvinyl chloride is approximately 9.8 billion pounds annually.
The above-mentioned elimination reaction is typically performed thermally at temperatures ranging from 500.degree. C. and 600.degree. C. However, the use of activated carbons in the reaction mixture has resulted in lowering the temperature requirements to between 300.degree. C. and 400.degree. C. Catalytic cracking on pumice or charcoal impregnated with BaCl.sub.2 or ZnCl.sub.2 also has been utilized. However, these procedures have not been widely adopted due to the limited life of the resulting catalysts.
Other efforts for enhancing the catalytic activity of activated carbon in these reactions include incorporating nitrogen materials into the lattice structure of the carbon. While the industrial applicability of the resulting carbon material is not known, it is likely that the resulting carbon is more expensive than typical activated carbon materials.
A need exists in the art for a method to produce olefins and monohalogenated olefins from dihalogenated aliphatic compounds via elimination reactions that can be performed at temperatures much lower than those required in thermal processes. The method should be economical and also employ a reusable catalyst which does not require any preparation.